18th Century French School, Arcadian Landscape, Drawing

 France 18th Century,
Pastorale (Arcadian Landscape)
Black chalk and heightenings of white gouache on blue-grey paper
19 x 31 cm
Framed : 34.5 x 46.5 cm

The atmosphere and the subject have suggested this drawing had been designed in the close circle of Jean Honoré Fragonard (1732 1806).
The style is also quite close to the one of this great french painter as it can be seen for example in the tree at the center.
The subject is an idealized landscape with sheperds. It evocated Arcadia, this imaginary country of the ancien Greece where eternal peace and happiness were rules.
Fragonard and François Boucher, often produced such scenes, it was a literary subject, which delighted the high society of this time.